She Wanted Love
Dec. 1st, 2016 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyNovember books read
* The Bell of the Four Evangelists - Violet Needham (1947) ★ ★ ★ ★
After my exertions with the Booker nominees, I needed something lighter and lo! this was just the thing. This is the story of 12-year-old Penny, who is sent to stay with her cousin Tabitha while her parents go to America, despite the fact that they haven't spoken to Tabitha for fourteen years. While there she gets caught up in a centuries-old feud between their family, the Merivales, and their distant cousins, the Marvells. She also meets her 15-year-old cousin many times removed and they decide to get married. So that happened.
This was fun. It's The Little White Horse only more realistic and with ghosts, if both those things can be true.
Not featured, but mentioned, is the cousin's father, Sir Marmaduke Marvell, which is the most AMAZING name. One could even call it Marvell-ous, hahaha.
* The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronovitch (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
This is book six in the Rivers of London series, and it's good: energetic and fun. He's dialled back the pop culture references that I thought were getting out of hand in previous books. It was only when I got to the end I realised the plot wasn't all that deep and that this book was really all about the overarching story, setting up the chess board for the next instalment. So while I enjoyed it, I wouldn't recommend reading it until you've read the rest of them.
* Raven Black - Ann Cleeves (2006) ★ ★ ★ ★
In holiday mode and turning to mysteries. This is the first of Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series, an above-average murder-in-a-small-town story. There’s really not much else to say.
* The Somnambulist - Essie Fox (2011) ★ ★
Are you a fan of incestuous rape and surprise paedophilia? Well, this is the book for you! Otherwise, no.
The start of this book is too long; the end is too long; and the middle is not as MYSTERIOUS as it thinks it is. The thing is, there's the germ of a good idea here, but it seems that this was the author's first novel, and it shows in a heavy-handed sort of way, making characters too vague and opening doors to ideas but not following through. Not a bad book, but it could have been a lot tauter.
* Eeny Meeny - MJ Arlidge (2014) ★
Unpleasant nonsense about a detective that the author is a bit too in love with working with the most useless police in Britain to track down a serial killer who traps people in pairs, forcing one to kill the other to escape. (Although credit where it's due: that serial killer is no slacker. All that stalking and dungeon preparation and kidnapping, and still managing to hold down a job. That's some work ethic.)
It also has my least favourite crime trope, the detective who is personally involved with the case. Grah.
There's a quote on the cover from Bestselling Author Tami Hoag, who says, "I couldn't turn the pages fast enough." You might want to see a doctor about that, Tami.
* Westmorland Alone - Ian Sansom (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
This is the third book in a series, but the first I've read. I certainly plan to go back to the others now. This is a cosy murder mystery set in the 1930s, but it has a bit of bite. {Self-proclaimed) Professor Morley, his daughter Miriam and factotum Sefton are travelling the counties of England to write a guidebook about each, and apparently stumbling over a murder every time. Morley is exuberant and this book could have been lighter than air, but it's brought down to earth by Sefton, a troubled soul who acts as narrator.
Despite the fact the cover clearly depicts a derailed train, I was more surprised than I should have been when a train crashed in one of the early chapters because apparently I'm an idiot.
* The Bell of the Four Evangelists - Violet Needham (1947) ★ ★ ★ ★
After my exertions with the Booker nominees, I needed something lighter and lo! this was just the thing. This is the story of 12-year-old Penny, who is sent to stay with her cousin Tabitha while her parents go to America, despite the fact that they haven't spoken to Tabitha for fourteen years. While there she gets caught up in a centuries-old feud between their family, the Merivales, and their distant cousins, the Marvells. She also meets her 15-year-old cousin many times removed and they decide to get married. So that happened.
This was fun. It's The Little White Horse only more realistic and with ghosts, if both those things can be true.
Not featured, but mentioned, is the cousin's father, Sir Marmaduke Marvell, which is the most AMAZING name. One could even call it Marvell-ous, hahaha.
* The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronovitch (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
This is book six in the Rivers of London series, and it's good: energetic and fun. He's dialled back the pop culture references that I thought were getting out of hand in previous books. It was only when I got to the end I realised the plot wasn't all that deep and that this book was really all about the overarching story, setting up the chess board for the next instalment. So while I enjoyed it, I wouldn't recommend reading it until you've read the rest of them.
* Raven Black - Ann Cleeves (2006) ★ ★ ★ ★
In holiday mode and turning to mysteries. This is the first of Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series, an above-average murder-in-a-small-town story. There’s really not much else to say.
* The Somnambulist - Essie Fox (2011) ★ ★
Are you a fan of incestuous rape and surprise paedophilia? Well, this is the book for you! Otherwise, no.
The start of this book is too long; the end is too long; and the middle is not as MYSTERIOUS as it thinks it is. The thing is, there's the germ of a good idea here, but it seems that this was the author's first novel, and it shows in a heavy-handed sort of way, making characters too vague and opening doors to ideas but not following through. Not a bad book, but it could have been a lot tauter.
* Eeny Meeny - MJ Arlidge (2014) ★
Unpleasant nonsense about a detective that the author is a bit too in love with working with the most useless police in Britain to track down a serial killer who traps people in pairs, forcing one to kill the other to escape. (Although credit where it's due: that serial killer is no slacker. All that stalking and dungeon preparation and kidnapping, and still managing to hold down a job. That's some work ethic.)
It also has my least favourite crime trope, the detective who is personally involved with the case. Grah.
There's a quote on the cover from Bestselling Author Tami Hoag, who says, "I couldn't turn the pages fast enough." You might want to see a doctor about that, Tami.
* Westmorland Alone - Ian Sansom (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★
This is the third book in a series, but the first I've read. I certainly plan to go back to the others now. This is a cosy murder mystery set in the 1930s, but it has a bit of bite. {Self-proclaimed) Professor Morley, his daughter Miriam and factotum Sefton are travelling the counties of England to write a guidebook about each, and apparently stumbling over a murder every time. Morley is exuberant and this book could have been lighter than air, but it's brought down to earth by Sefton, a troubled soul who acts as narrator.
Despite the fact the cover clearly depicts a derailed train, I was more surprised than I should have been when a train crashed in one of the early chapters because apparently I'm an idiot.